Beautiful, lush mountain property with a spacious, well-equipped single-story house within easy reach of San Jose. Perfect for working remotely or unwinding, Finca Los Encinales is located in the southeast corner of Costa Rica's Central Valley. The property combines a native oak forest with walking trails and scenic vistas, beautifully landscaped grounds, ponds, a small river, and an extraordinary variety of flowers, birds, and wildlife like sloths, opossums, and the occasional otter.
Getting there:
As you've probably read elsewhere, getting anywhere in Costa Rica is, to say the least, challenging. Streets are notoriously with out signs/names and building have no numbers. Directions are given out via references to landmarks, which often times no longer exist and, in any case, are known only to locals. But don't be discouraged. Think of it as an adventure. People do get to where they need to go!
And thankfully, the digital gods have provided us with Google Maps and Waze! Just enter "Finca Los Encinales" into either app and, voila!, you will have an instant guide that will get you back on track if you make a wrong turn. Of course this is predicated on having cellphone connectivity which is highly recommended for in-country navigation in any case, even when walking. Local "prepaid" chips are available at the airport or in local "carrier" stores in nearby shopping malls. Too, car rental companies still offer old-style gps devices for an additional cost.
If you are using a gps or another map app the geo-point for the property is: 9.84921982719216, -84.04259850585396.
We do not recommend printing out map instructions ahead of time because, without street signs/names, following along that way can be extremely confusing.
The House:
The house is a comfortable three-bedroom, two-bathroom bungalow with a living room, dining room, and a fully equiped kitchen with a stock of basic cooking supplies. The spacious front porch is perfect for outdoor dining and relaxation. There is also a laundry room with a washer and dryer. Wi-Fi, a smart TV, and a basic cable package are available for your convenience.
Water is provided by the community-managed Asada and is potable. However, a water filter is available in the kitchen as a precaution during heavy rains.
Guests are welcome to explore the property, enjoy the herb garden, and harvest available seasonal fruits. Fresh tilapia from the ponds is available for purchase. If your stay is longer than a week, optional cleaning service is offered.
The property:
Finca el Tablazo is nestled at the foot of the El Tablazo mountain, one of the last remaining cloud forests in the Central Valley. The property is part of an area corridor system and the walking trails that wind through oak forest and landscaped grounds offer great vistas and opportunities to see an astonishing variety of wildlife.
El Tablazo is home to ocelots, porcupines, sloths, coatimundi, racoons, armadillos, opossums, wild peccary and, in recent years, coyotes.With the exception of the coyotes, all of these creatures have also been spotted at one time or other on the property.
Among many other birds, woodpeckers, parakeets, humming birds, trogons, tanagers, hawks, thrushes, sparrows, motmots, kiskadee flycatchers, cuckoos and warblers abound. Our three tilapia ponds, surrounded by papyrus and fruit trees, attract kingfishers, great blue herons and even river otters. Turtles, frogs, crabs and lizards along with buzzing dragonflies and a flurry of butterflies can also be found over and around the ponds, which have become eco-systems unto themselves.
Flowers, including an array of colourful bougainvillea, lilies, begonias, bromeliads, ginger, gladioli, magnolias, hibiscus, nightshade, edible itabo, heliconias, and orchids dot the grounds and surround the house. Coffee, papaya, lemon, avocado, mango, orange, nispero (japanese loquat), passion fruit and jocote (spanish plum) trees can also be found throughout the grounds and around the house along with several varieties of banana, maracuya, mulberry and, on some special occasions, the delicious cactus “dragon fruit” pitaya. The native “Encino” oak forest that looms over the backside of the house and covers about half the property is teaming with plant, fungi, and animal life, forming another robust micro eco-system and is what gives the property its namesake.
Along with the above-mentioned butterflies and dragonflies, you will see a stunning array of tropical insects: small black honey bees, wasps, praying mantis, spiders, walking sticks and astonishingly colourful scarab beetles. You will also see leaf cutter ant highways, hear the whining of cicadas and, maybe, catch a glimpse of one or more of a riot of bugs that have developed remarkable ways to camouflage themselves. At night you will hear the chirping of both the frogs and crickets and, if you are on the porch, you may spot some enormous moths fluttering around the lights or a fruit bat swooping by.
Guests should take general precautions while enjoying nature and are advised to use insect repellent, especially for late-afternoon and evening walks.
Climate:
Guests should keep in mind that temperatures range from as low as 12 C (54 F) at night to 24 C (75 F) during the day in the “dry” season between late November and April and from 18 C (65 F) to 28 C (82 F) during the warmer “rainy” season between May and November. To be sure, these are loosely defined seasons with rain becoming less likely towards the end of the year and the early months and more likely at and after the middle months. And nowhere more than in the tropics does the expression “when it rains, it pours” apply. Typically, during the rainy season, early sunny mornings become cloud-covered mid-days and by mid-to-late afternoon the skies will open, at times, with such jaw-dropping torrential downpours that, between flashes of lightning and thunderclaps, you might be left wondering if there is any water left for the rest of the planet!
On that note, while Costa Rica boasts the world’s most sustainable electric grid, temporary power outages are not infrequent, especially when it's raining. During particularly intense storms, branches can take out power lines in the neighborhood and lightning can sometimes hit transformers. There are flashlights, candles and matches in the kitchen in the cupboard beside the refrigerator for such eventualities. A two-two burner propane stove is also available if needed during a prolonged outage. Most outages last only a few minutes and, in our experience, none have gone beyond than 4 hours.
Caretaker:
Laureano, the property caretaker, lives on-site and is available to assist with any questions or needs during your stay.
